


Stirring the Pot: III

by Daegaer



Series: Stirring the Pot [3]
Category: Jewish Scripture & Legend, תלמוד | Talmud
Genre: Amoraim, Birds, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, F/M, Gen, Magic, Rabbis, Talmud, women's magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22908991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: Rav Nachman's daughters debate the virtues of husbands and kidnappers.
Series: Stirring the Pot [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674706
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15
Collections: Purimgifts 2020





	Stirring the Pot: III

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cantarina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cantarina/gifts).



_Alas,_ Rav Ilish thought in the quietness of his heart, _Surely a witch has turned the evil eye against me._ Many days had passed since he had been taken captive in the market square in Nehardea, and it seemed that no one at all wished to ransom him.

"These ones," his captors said, indicating him and the man beside whom he sat, "are no labourers. To whom should we sell them?"

"Geld them and sell them as eunuchs," one man said, and laughed as Rav Ilish and his fellow captive shivered.

"I can read and write in three languages!" Rav Ilish said quickly. "Aramaic, Persian and most importantly, Hebrew!"

"There is always a market for secretaries. You! Are you also educated?"

"I can read Aramaic," the other captive said, and their captors withdrew. "I can read a very little," he whispered to Rav Ilish, "May the Lord protect us both. But I can do something else – I can understand the language of birds."

 _The Lord would not send yet more witchcraft on my path,_ Rav Ilish thought. _Surely an understanding of the speech of beasts and birds is a gift that only those favoured by the Holy One possess_. "What does that raven say?" he said, nodding at a raven that spied on them from a branch. It opened its mouth and sent forth a rough cry.

"It says, _Ilish, run away,_ " the man said.

"Everyone knows that ravens cannot be trusted; did not the raven abandon its mission when Noah sent it forth at the Flood's end?" Ilish said, and turned his face away. A dove came and sat opposite him, scratching in the dust. It eyed him from one eye and then from the other and cooed over and over. The man prodded him in the back.

"It says, _Run away, Ilish, run away,_ " he said.

Rav Ilish sat up. Even if his fellow captive worked magic, it could not be as wicked as women's witchcraft. 

"Really?" he said.

"Yes," the man said. "It says you should hurry."

"In the sacred books the Congregation of Israel is compared to a dove; surely the dove means to say that a miracle will happen, and I will be safe if I escape," Rav Ilish said. 

"Then I will go with you."

Rav Ilish nodded. He could slip away, he thought. Their captors had not tied them, merely separating the women from the men, and trusting that spiriting them across the Great River was enough to prevent escape.

Rav Ilish said, "Before we leave, I will go and see Rav Nachman’s daughters. If they are steadfast in their faith and haven't acted like shameless hussies I will take them with me and I will return them to their home."

"Oh, let us just flee! Their father is famous and wealthy – surely he will ransom them. These evildoers will not harm them, lest they are deprived of the ransom."

"Nevertheless," Rav Ilish said. He thought of the pleasure of returning Rav Nachman's daughters to him, and how all Nehardea would say that women's piety was overshadowed by the bravery of men. "Women always gather together in the bathroom to speak privately to each other," he said. "I will discover their true nature by listening to what they say there."

"You would spy on ladies in the bathroom?" the man who spoke to birds said dubiously.

"With a pure mind, of course," Rav Ilish said, and crept to the latrines set aside for the women captives.

It happened that Miriam and Huldah and Deborah were at that time in the latrine, and they spoke in its privacy to each other.

"The leader of the kidnappers looks on me with love and says my fame and the fame of both mother and father has spread far," Deborah said. "He wishes to be my husband, and will give up his pagan ways."

"His second-in-command saw me stirring the women's food," Huldah said, "and he knelt down and gave praise to the Holy One who showed His power through the piety of a skilled woman, and swore he would seek out a rabbi to become a Jew."

"The dearest friend of the leader came to me and knelt at my feet," Miriam said, "he said no friendship could match the love he feels, and he wants nothing more than to see sons and daughters flocking about me. He will seek circumcision if I will have him. He loves no one's sister. I made sure to ask."

"These kidnappers would be better husbands than the men of Nehardea to whom we are married," they all said. "We should tell our captors to distance us from here so that our husbands should not come to this area and hear that we are here, and redeem us, and take us home."

"So much for pious women," Rav Ilish muttered and ran from the latrine, followed by the man who spoke to birds.

They ran for a very long way and saw the waters of the Great River ahead of them. At that point, they heard the beat of horses' hooves, and looked back to see three of the kidnappers behind them, with drawn swords.

"Remember the promised miracle, O Lord!" Rav Ilish cried as they ran faster.

A small boat was setting out from the riverbank, ferrying a man with a goose and a fox from one side of the River to the other. With the last of his strength Rav Ilish leapt from the shore and landed in the boat, making it rock dangerously as the man and his animals set up a cry to Heaven and cursed him and his ancestors. He looked back wildly to see the other man lying motionless on the riverbank, the kidnappers gathered around him, their sword blades flashing.

"Who are you?" the owner of the boat demanded.

"I am Ilish of Nehardea," he replied.

"And the other?"

"I never asked his name," Rav Ilish said, and covered his face.

In due time Rav Nachman and his sons-in-law discovered the hiding place of the kidnappers, and offered them great sums of silver. By their own code the captors could not refuse and so Rav Nachman brought his daughters home. All of Nehardea rejoiced, except for Rav Ilish.

"They stir their pots with witchcraft," he said.

But no one heard him, for the jewels of Rav Nachman's house had been redeemed, and their piety was known to all. So good and pure they were that even their kidnappers had released them unharmed, all the city said, and had begged for forgiveness, asking Rav Nachman for instruction in the Law and conversion. Miriam and Huldah and Deborah continued to be known as pious women, and their skills increased. So famous were they that their husbands came home early from the House of Study and listened to their words, and in time all of them became the mothers of sons and daughters. Miriam's charity was particularly known, and she arranged the marriages of many young women who had rumours of ill-conduct murmured against them, sending such girls far, far away from Nehardea and the husbands of rabbis' daughters.

Rav Ilish shook his head and for the rest of his days spread out bread for birds, but he never understood one word of the wisdom they spoke to him.

[source](http://teresawinchestercards.co.uk/product/raven-dove-print/)

**Author's Note:**

> The Talmudic writers take a very different view of magic, depending on whether it is performed by men or women. The story of the abduction of Rav Nachman's daughters, their magic powers, and Rav Ilish's involvement is found in Talmud Babli, Gittin 45a:
> 
> The Gemara relates that Rav Naḥman’s daughters would stir a boiling pot with their bare hands, and people thought that the heat did not harm them due to their righteousness. Rav Ilish had a difficulty with a verse, as it is written: “A man one of a thousand I have found, and a woman among all those have I not found” (Ecclesiastes 7:28). Aren’t there Rav Naḥman’s daughters, who were exceptionally righteous? These words caused them to be taken captive, due to the evil eye, and Rav Ilish was also taken captive with them.
> 
> One day a certain man was sitting with him in captivity who knew the language of birds. A raven came and called to Rav Ilish. Rav Ilish said to the man: What is the raven saying? He said to him that it is saying: Ilish, escape; Ilish, escape. Rav Ilish said: It is a lying raven, and I do not rely on it.
> 
> In the meantime, a dove came and was calling out. Rav Ilish said to the man: What is it saying? He said to him that the dove said: Ilish, escape; Ilish, escape. Ilish said: The Congregation of Israel is compared to a dove; I conclude from the dove’s words that a miracle will happen for me, and I can attempt to escape. Rav Ilish said: Before I leave, I will go and I will see Rav Naḥman’s daughters. If they remained steadfast in their faith and are acting appropriately, then I will take them with me and I will return them to their home.
> 
> He said: Women tell all of their secret matters to each other in the bathroom, so he went there to eavesdrop on them. He heard them saying: These captors are now our husbands, and the men of Neharde’a to whom we are married are our husbands. We should tell our captors to distance us from here so that our husbands should not come to this area and hear that we are here, and redeem us, and take us home. They preferred to remain with their captors. 
> 
> Upon hearing this Rav Ilish arose and escaped. He and that man who knew the language of the birds came to a river crossing. A miracle happened for him and he crossed the river on a ferry, and the captors found that man and killed him. When Rav Naḥman’s daughters were returned and they came back from their captivity, Rav Ilish said: They would stir the pot with witchcraft, and that is why they were not burned by the boiling pot, but it was not due to their righteousness. 
> 
> * * * *
> 
> The man with the goose and the fox is not from the Talmud, but is trying to solve the old puzzle of how to get a fox, goose and bag of grain across a river when one's boat will only take two of the three at a time, and there is a danger of various combinations eating each other if left unguarded!


End file.
